Information model for property records management

ABSTRACT

An information model for a party and property records management system includes a legal party role object for maintaining relationships between objects, such as legal party objects and revenue-object objects, within the information model. A legal party object could have several associated objects, such as an identification number object or a legal party communication object.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Taxation of property is a prime means for governmental units to collectmoney. For example, school districts, cities, townships, park districtsand other governmental units levy a tax on real estate. The taxescollected are then used to finance governmental services. The collectionof these taxes is critical to the functioning of the governmental units.

Collection of taxes on property is complex. First, there are manydifferent types of property that may be taxed. Real estate, automobiles,business licenses, and boats are just some of the properties that can betaxed. There are a multitude of different entities that may ownproperty. Individuals, corporations, not-for-profit corporations, andpartnerships, for example, may own property. The property itself maychange. A real estate parcel may be divided, improved or joined withother parcels. The parcel may even be renamed. Personal property, suchas an automobile, may change physical location from one address toanother.

Further, property can also change classifications. For example, a mobilehome may be initially classified as personal property. When it becomesaffixed to a foundation on land, it may be considered as real property.

Finally, there are a multitude of different governmental units imposinga tax on property. A single piece of property can be taxed by severalgovernmental units. To further complicate the collection of taxes, thevarious units may not have identical jurisdictions. A community may becontained in more than one county. The community may have a parkdistrict which can collect taxes over a geographical area which isdifferent from the community itself. School districts may includemultiple communities. Further, special assessments for governmentalimprovement of real estate, such as for the installation of sidewalksand street lighting, may apply to only a select group of propertieswithin a community.

In order to manage the collection of property taxes, governmental unitsusually have a tax officer devoted exclusively to collection of propertytaxes. The tax officer usually is not directly responsible formaintaining records associated with the property. Thus, the tax officermust rely on the various other services to maintain property records.For example, one government agency may be charged with maintainingvehicle registrations while a second government agency may beresponsible for maintaining real estate records while a third agency maybe responsible for assessing the value of the property.

A simplified information model for managing the disparate data sourcesin a single integrated data structure is highly desirable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The aforementioned problems are overcome in the present invention. Aninformation model provides the basis for a system and a method forproperty records management.

The information model has a legal party object. Information with respectto legal parties that have rights and tax responsibilities with respectto taxable property are managed by way of the legal party object. Thelegal party object also is capable of serving a dual purpose as the keyentity in a broader constituency relationship management (CRM) systemthat integrates the information for all facets of the local governmententerprise. An identification number object is associated with eachlegal party object. An identification number is an externally assignedidentification number such as a driver's license number. A legal partycommunication object is also associated with each legal party object.The legal party communication provides the address or other means tocommunicate with a legal party.

The information model also may contain a revenue-object object. Arevenue-object is any item which may be taxed, such as, for example,real property, business licenses and motor vehicles. The revenue-objectobject has a situs address object for information concerning thelocation of the property. A tax authority group role object relates taxauthority group objects, such as government bodies capable of levying atax, to revenue-object objects. Various other objects are types ofrevenue-object object, such as parcel objects, filing objects and non advalorem objects.

The information model connects revenue-object objects and legal partyobjects by way of legal party role objects. Legal party roles containthe definition of the relationship between a specified legal party and arevenue-object. For example, a legal party may be the owner of aparticular revenue-object, such as an apartment building, while anotherlegal party may be a tenant of the apartment building.

By utilizing the information model as hereinafter described and throughthe use of the legal party object, the revenue-object object and thelegal party role object, the management of the process of collection andlevying taxes is greatly improved, allowing for more robust and flexiblesystems to assist in the tax collection process and to provide afoundation for local government enterprise information management ofcitizen and property data.

These and other objects, advantages and features of the invention willbe more readily understood and appreciated by reference to the detaileddescription and the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a computer network.

FIG. 2A is a first portion of an information model for party andproperty management.

FIG. 2B is a second portion of an information model for party andproperty management.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a computer network. Server 1 is connected to workstation 2by way of network 3. Workstation 4 is directly connected to server 1.Server 1 includes memory 5. An application program operating on server 1may access memory 5. Memory 5 additionally may contain an applicationprogram which is loaded for execution on server 1. Additionally,workstations 2, 4 may access server 1 and memory 5. Signals representingthe contents and structure of memory 5 are sent between server 1 andworkstations 2, 4.

Server 1 is representative of a data processing system. Server 1 couldbe a cluster of computers or a single computer. Memory 5 could bephysically located within server 1 or could be distributed across manydifferent devices.

FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, when joined, show an information model for partyand property records management. Many types of cardinality, whichdefines the numeric relationships between occurrences of the objects oneither end of the relationship line, may be used between the objectswithin that information model. In one embodiment, the cardinalitybetween the associated objects is shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B. Theinformation model has a plurality of objects for maintenance of partyand property data.

The information model is centered on two classes of objects,revenue-object object 10 and legal party object 20. Revenue-objectobject 10 is any entity that may generate revenue for the taxingjurisdiction. Examples of revenue-object objects 10 include, but are notlimited to, real estate parcels, motor vehicles, personal property, orbusiness licenses. Legal party object 20 is an individual, organization,or public agency that has legal standing and is recognized as a legalentity under the law. Once revenue-object object 10 and legal partyobject 20 are created they may be associated to each other. However,legal party objects 20 may exist in the system without any relationshipto revenue-object objects 10. Legal party object 20 may have a pluralityof associated related legal party objects 22, legal party communicationobjects 24, identification number objects 26, as well as other legalparty objects 20 as aliases.

Related legal party object 22 maintains relationships between legalparty object 20 and other legal party objects 20 based on specialrelationships. For example, a grandmother may be related to a son and agranddaughter; a partner to the partnership organization; or simply thespousal relationship may be represented. Furthermore, a primary legalparty object 20 may be related to a plurality of secondary legal partyobjects 20 that represent aliases for the primary. For example, a womanmay be known under her married name, a primary name, as well as hermaiden name, a secondary name.

Communication object 30 represents a method to contact a legal party.Legal party communication object 24 maintains associations between legalparty object 20 and any child object inheriting communication object 30.As a result, legal party object 20 may be associated to either mailingaddress objects 32 or alternate communication objects 34. Mailingaddress object 32, which inherits communication object 30, holds thenames and addresses used to mail correspondence. Alternate communicationobject 34 contains additional methods for contacting a legal party suchas an e-mail address. More than one communication object 30 may beassociated to legal party object 20 and more than one legal party object20 may be associated to the same communication object 30. Traditionaldata models have communication methods explicitly enumerated by namedtype with storage space for that particular named type; whereas, thisinvention provides the capacity for handling all existing communicationmethods as well as the flexibility to handle methods not yet defined oravailable.

Identification number object 26 contains a user-defined collection ofidentification numbers for both primary and alias legal party objects20, which may include items such as social security, federal employer,state employer, or driver's license numbers, and any other type ofidentification numbers. For each collection of identification numberobjects 26 created for each legal party object 20, one identificationnumber object 26 may be designated as a primary identification numberobject 26. Traditional data models have these types of identificationnumbers explicitly enumerated by named type with storage space for thatparticular named type. The information model disclosed herein providesthe capacity for handling all existing identifications as well asidentification systems of the future.

Legal party role object 50 maintains the associations and nature of therelationships between legal party object 20 and other existing objectswithin the information model. Legal party role object 50 is created whenlegal party object 20 is associated to another object, such asrevenue-object object 10. Upon creation, the user may specify the natureof the relationship by role type, which is user definable. For example,a legal party may be related to a piece of real property with the roleof owner. Legal party role object 50 maintains associations betweenlegal party object 20 and a plurality of revenue-object objects 10,account objects 52, right history objects 54, and official documentobjects 60. When legal party role object 50 is associated withrevenue-object object 10, objects must be associated with account object52 as well.

Account object 52 maintains a collection of all revenue-object objects10 associated with a particular legal party object 20. This objectfacilitates a grouping of revenue-object objects 10 for billingpurposes. For example, account object 52 may contain a listing of realestate parcels, personal property, and/or business licenses owned by aparticular legal party.

Right history object 54 provides a chain of title for a particularrevenue-object object 10. A collection of right history objects 54associated with a particular revenue-object object 10 provides all legalparty objects 20 denoted as grantor or grantee associated with thatrevenue-object object 10. For example, a right history object 54 for areal estate parcel may contain a listing such as the following: JaneSmith (grantor) to John Riley (grantee), John Riley (grantor) to JessicaGreen (grantee), etc. Right history object 54 also provides forrecording the chain of title for separated rights derived from anexisting revenue-object object 10 such as mineral rights when conveyedas separately owned property rights from the surface rights in land.

Official document object 60 represents an official document that affectsone or more revenue-object objects 10 and/or legal party objects 20.Official document object 60 may be associated to a plurality ofrestriction objects 62, annexation objects 64, redescription objects 66,special assessment ordinance objects 68, and right transfer objects 70.

Restriction object 62 represents a restriction on the right of use ofthe property. It captures information related to administrative,judicial, or other limitations and permissions for the use and enjoymentof land by the land right holder. These are not transferred rights,although succeeding owners may agree to the same restriction on aparcel. An example is a covenant that does not run with the land.Official document object 60 and parcel object 80 may each be associatedto a plurality of restriction objects 62, enumerating the restrictionsassociated with each respective object.

Annexation object 64 represents the annexation of a property by anyjurisdiction from another jurisdiction, as well as the de-annexation ofa property. For example, a city might annex property located at itsborder. It also describes an alteration of the tax authority groupassigned to revenue-object object 10. Annexation object 64 may have aplurality of associated tax authority group history objects 122, whichrepresent a chain of tax authorities involved with the annexation.

Redescription object 66 records the land description whenever it isre-described from what it was previously. This may occur when two ormore land parcels are merged or a single parcel is divided, as well aswhen a survey is conducted. Redescription object 66 may be associated toa plurality of parcel history objects 84, which collectively provide ahistory tree of the parcel from a parent parcel to its children, as wellas children that form a parent parcel.

Special assessment ordinance object 68 contains information regarding aspecial assessment ordinance associated with a particular piece ofproperty.

Right transfer object 70 records the conveyance of rights and interestsassociated with revenue-object objects from a grantor to grantee.Furthermore, right transfer object 70 may be associated to a pluralityof right history objects 54, which collectively provide a chain ofownership from grantors to grantees. Rights and interests aredistinguishable from a restriction, which is a limitation placed by agoverning party and is not in the chain of title.

Revenue-object object 10 represents a revenue source for thatjurisdiction and is the lowest level of delinquency. Revenue-objectobject 10 may be inherited to instantiate parcel object 80, filingobject 90, or non ad valorem object 100. Depending on the laws of aparticular state, property will be categorized as one of the threetypes. Parcel object 80 typically contains real estate parcels. Filingobject 90 typically contains personal property. Finally, non ad valoremobject 100 may represent property not taxed on value, but on some otherindicia. For example, business or occupational licenses are taxed solelybecause of their existence. Airplanes may be taxed based upon the enginehorsepower, while boats may be taxed based upon length. These childrenof revenue-object object 10 may have a plurality of associated relatedrevenue-object objects 12, tax authority group role objects 120, andsitus address role objects 130.

Related revenue-object object 12 relates revenue-object object 10 toanother revenue-object object 10. For example, related revenue-objectobject 12 may be used to associate a motor vehicle to a particularresidence.

Situs address object 132 contains a list of physical addresses that maybe associated with one or more revenue-object objects 10. Likewise, eachrevenue-object object 10 may be associated with one or more situsaddress objects 132. Situs address role object 130 maintains theassociations between situs address object 132 and other existingobjects.

Parcel object 80 of type revenue-object object 10 may have a pluralityof associated parcel area objects 82, parcel history objects 84,restriction objects 62, and description header objects 140.

Parcel area object 82 contains area measurements such as legal acres,legal square footage, computed acres, computed square footage, as wellas the parcel area type, which is a user-defined type. Such user-definedarea types may be expressed in English, metric or other systems ofmeasurement.

Description header object 140 provides the structure for assembling thecomponents of a single legal description and may be associated to freeform description objects 142 and description detail objects 144. Freeform description object 142 contains those legal descriptions not insurvey systems. For example, it may contain a metes and boundsdescription of the parcel. Description detail object 144 providescomponents of a single legal description that are used for creatinglegal descriptions based on areas. For example, it may contain a surveydescription of a real estate parcel. Description header object 140 mayprovide a description of the parcel based on a concatenation of thenarrative description from associated free form description object 142and the structured description from description detail object 144.

Tax authority group object 124 represents a unique group of taxauthorities within a geographic area that may levy taxes against aproperty. Tax authority group object 124 may be associated to one ormore revenue-object objects 10. These associations are maintained in taxauthority group role object 120, which may be associated to a pluralityof tax authority group history objects 122. Tax authority group historyobject 122 provides the history of changes of tax authority groupobjects 124 associated to particular revenue-object objects 10 andannexation objects 64. It identifies revenue-object objects 10 impactedby annexations, such as before and after tax authority groups.

Role objects (legal party role object 50, tax authority group roleobject 120, and situs address role object 130) act as gateways to otherobjects by controlling the associations between objects andclassifications of those associations. Role objects also function tocontrol security access to particular objects.

The above description is of the preferred embodiment. Variousalterations and changes can be made without departing from the spiritand broader aspects of the invention as defined in the appended claims,which are to be interpreted in accordance with the principles of patentlaw including the doctrine of equivalents. Any references to claimelements in the singular, for example, using the articles “a,” “an,”“the,” or “said,” is not to be construed as limiting the element to thesingular.

1. A computer-readable storage medium tangibly embodying an informationmodel for managing party and property information from multiple datasources in a single data structure, the information model comprising: aplurality of legal party objects including first and second legal partyobjects to represent first and second legal entities, respectively, thefirst and second legal entities being at least one of an individual, anorganization and a public agency; a plurality of revenue-object objectsincluding a revenue-object object representing a taxable item, whereinthe first and second legal entities have a tax responsibility withrespect to the taxable item; and a plurality of legal party role objectsincluding first and second legal party role objects to designate entityrole types and to connect the first and second legal party objectsrespectively to the revenue-object object, whereby each of the first andsecond legal party role objects maintains a relationship between thefirst and second legal party objects and the revenue-object object. 2.The information model of claim 1 further including a plurality ofobjects associated with the first legal party object.
 3. The informationmodel of claim 2 wherein one of the first plurality of associatedobjects is an identification number object.
 4. The information model ofclaim 2 wherein one of the first plurality of associated objects is alegal party communication object.
 5. The information model of claim 2wherein one of the first plurality of associated objects is a legalparty communication object to represent a manner of contacting the firstlegal entity, the legal party communication object having a plurality ofassociated communication objects.
 6. The information model of claim 5wherein the legal party communication object is inheritable by a mailingaddress object.
 7. The information model of claim 5 wherein the legalparty communication object is inheritable by an alternate communicationobject.
 8. The information model of claim 2 wherein one of the firstplurality of associated objects is a related legal party object.
 9. Theinformation model of claim 2 wherein one of the first plurality ofassociated objects is a second legal party object.
 10. The informationmodel of claim 1 further including an official document objectassociated with the first legal party role object to represent anofficial document affecting at least one of the first legal entity andthe taxable item.
 11. The information model of claim 10 furtherincluding a plurality of objects associated with the official documentobject.
 12. The information model of claim 11 wherein one of theplurality of objects associated with the official document object is arestriction object.
 13. The information model of claim 11 wherein one ofthe plurality of objects associated with the official document object isthe annexation object.
 14. The information model of claim 11 wherein oneof the plurality of objects associated with the official document objectis the re-description object.
 15. The information model of claim 11wherein one of the plurality of objects associated with the officialdocument object is a special assessment ordinance object.
 16. Theinformation model of claim 11 wherein one of the plurality of objectsassociated with the official document object is a right transfer object.17. The information model of claim 1 further comprising a right historyobject associated with the first legal party role object to represent achain of title for the taxable item.
 18. The information model of claim1 further comprising an account object associated with the first legalparty role object to represent the taxable item as associated with thefirst legal entity.
 19. A computer-readable storage medium tangiblyembodying an information model for managing party and propertyinformation from multiple data sources in a single data structure, theinformation model comprising: a plurality of legal party objectsincluding first and second legal party objects to represent first andsecond legal entities, respectively, the first and second legal entitiesbeing at least one of an individual, an organization and a publicagency; a plurality of revenue-object objects to represent a pluralityof taxable items, wherein the first and second legal entities have a taxresponsibility with respect to at least one of the plurality of taxableitems represented by at least one of the plurality of revenue-objectobjects; a plurality of legal party role objects including first andsecond legal party role objects to designate entity role types and toconnect the first and second legal party objects respectively to the atleast one of the plurality of revenue-object objects, whereby each ofthe first and second legal party role objects maintains a relationshipbetween the first and second legal party objects and the at least one ofthe plurality of revenue-object objects; and a plurality of objectsassociated with one of the plurality of revenue-object objects.
 20. Theinformation model of claim 19 wherein one of the plurality ofrevenue-object objects is inheritable by the plurality of objectsassociated with one of the plurality of revenue-object objects.
 21. Theinformation model of claim 19 wherein one of the objects associated withone of the plurality of revenue-object objects is a parcel object. 22.The information model of claim 19 wherein the plurality of objectsassociated with one of the plurality of revenue-object objects includesa parcel object and further includes a plurality of objects associatedwith the parcel object.
 23. The information model of claim 22 whereinone of the plurality of objects associated with the parcel object is adescription header object.
 24. The information model of claim 22 whereinat least one of the plurality of objects associated with the parcelobject is a description header object to represent a description of areal estate parcel, the description object having an associated freeform description object and description detail object.
 25. Theinformation model of claim 22 wherein one of the plurality of objectsassociated with the parcel object is a parcel area object.
 26. Theinformation model of claim 22 wherein one of the plurality of objectsassociated with the parcel object is a parcel history object.
 27. Theinformation model of claim 19 wherein one of the objects associated withone of the plurality of revenue-object objects is a filing object. 28.The information model of claim 19 wherein one of the objects associatedwith one of the plurality of revenue-object objects is a non ad valoremobject.
 29. The information model of claim 19 wherein one of the objectsassociated with one of the plurality of revenue-object objects is arelated revenue-object object.
 30. The information model of claim 19wherein one of the objects associated with one of the plurality ofrevenue-object objects is a situs address role object.
 31. Theinformation model of claim 30 further including a situs address objectassociated with the situs address role object to represent the physicaladdress of a taxable item.
 32. The information model of claim 22 whereinone of the plurality of objects associated with the parcel object is atax authority group role object.
 33. The information model of claim 19further including a tax authority group role object associated with oneof the plurality of revenue-object objects.
 34. The information model ofclaim 33 further including a plurality of objects associated with thetax authority group role object, wherein one of the plurality of objectsis a tax authority group object to represent at least one tax authoritythat levies a tax against a taxable item.
 35. The information model ofclaim 34 wherein one of the plurality of objects associated with the taxauthority group role object is a tax authority group history object torepresent a change to the at least one tax authority.
 36. An apparatusfor storing and accessing a property records management informationmodel, the apparatus comprising: a computer-readable media; and acomputer-readable information model on the computer readable media, thecomputer-readable information model including a legal party object torepresent a legal entity including one of an individual, an organizationand a public agency; a plurality of revenue-object objects to representa plurality of taxable items, wherein the legal entity has a taxresponsibility with respect to each of the plurality of taxable items;and a plurality of legal party role objects each connecting the legalparty object to one of the plurality of revenue-object objects, theplurality of legal party role objects being definable by a user andcontrolling and classifying relationships between the legal party objectand each of the plurality of revenue-object objects.
 37. The apparatusof claim 36 further including an account object associated with thelegal party role object to represent the first plurality of taxableitems as associated with the legal entity.
 38. The apparatus of claim 36further including a plurality of objects associated with the legal partyobject including a legal party communications object to represent amanner of contacting the legal entity.
 39. The apparatus of claim 36further including a plurality of objects associated with at least one ofthe plurality of revenue-object objects including a situs address objectto represent a physical address associated with at least one of theplurality of taxable items.
 40. The apparatus of claim 39 wherein theplurality of objects associated with a revenue-object object includes atax authority group object to represent at least one tax authority thatlevies a tax against the taxable item.
 41. The apparatus of claim 39wherein the plurality of objects associated with a revenue-object objectincludes a tax authority group history object to represent a change tothe at least one tax authority.